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Japan's Space Agency Loses Contact With New X-Ray Telescope Satellite "Hitomi"

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C

cameron

Member
Nature: "Japanese X-ray satellite loses communication with Earth"
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) lost contact with its flagship X-ray astronomical satellite, Hitomi, on 26 March. The observatory, launched on 17 February, had been going through initial check-outs and calibrations.

Hitomi's status remains unknown as JAXA engineers work to re-establish communication. Ominously, the US Joint Space Operations Center, which tracks space debris, reported spotting five objects in the vicinity of the spacecraft around the time it went silent. The centre characterized the objects as pieces of a “break-up”.

The space debris could indicate some minor pieces blowing off Hitomi as opposed to complete destruction, says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and space analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hitomi, which was known before launch as ASTRO-H, is designed to study X-rays streaming from cosmic phenomena such as black holes, galaxy clusters and dark matter. It carries a high-resolution spectrometer to measure X-ray wavelengths in exquisite detail. Earlier versions of the same instrument have twice met a grim fate on JAXA missions: in 2000, the ASTRO-E telescope crashed on launch, and in 2005 a helium leak aboard the Suzaku satellite crippled its spectrometer within weeks of launch.
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589
Hitomi (ASTRO-H) orbital period versus time from @spacetrackorg data showing sudden change on Mar 26.
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YBL6fcb.jpg
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589
@herve_dole Yes, but loss of comm + orbit change + radar detecting 5 pieces of debris is much worse than just loss of comm. Energetic event.
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B

Busty

Banned
I'm still reeling from the fact that Japan has an X-ray satellite named Hitomi.







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Yes, Hitomi Tanaka, obviously.
 
D

dramatis

Member
Hitomi, which was known before launch as ASTRO-H, is designed to study X-rays streaming from cosmic phenomena such as black holes, galaxy clusters and dark matter. It carries a high-resolution spectrometer to measure X-ray wavelengths in exquisite detail. Earlier versions of the same instrument have twice met a grim fate on JAXA missions: in 2000, the ASTRO-E telescope crashed on launch, and in 2005 a helium leak aboard the Suzaku satellite crippled its spectrometer within weeks of launch.
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This is some cursed streak they have going.
 
U

UnemployedVillain

Member
I wonder what's the bigger priority for them. Confirming that it's still functional or simply finding its location, dead or alive.

But in all seriousness, I hope they find it. It seems like it was damaged a little?
 
C

cameron

Member
It would be a huge science research loss if the telescope was destroyed/damaged. The mission was an international collaboration with Japan (JAXA), the US (NASA), Canada (CSA), Europe (ESA) and scientists everywhere.

Nature:
Studying X-ray emissions is the best way to observe a wide range of cosmic phenomena, from galaxy clusters to the super-heated accretion disks around black holes. But Earth’s atmosphere is mostly opaque to radiation outside the visible spectrum, and particularly to X-rays and γ-rays, meaning that most X-ray astronomy requires a satellite.

The major existing X-ray satellites are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton, which both launched in 1999. These can analyse the constituent wavelengths of X-rays — the spectra — emitted by point-like objects such as stars. But ASTRO-H will be the first to provide high-resolution spectra for much more spread-out X-ray sources such as galaxy clusters, says Norbert Schartel, project scientist for XMM-Newton at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre outside Madrid, who is also a member of ASTRO-H’s ESA team.
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Astronomers around the world will be allowed to request observing time with ASTRO-H. Each team will have exclusive access to the resulting data for one year, after which JAXA will make them publicly available — a model long adopted by NASA.
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NASA: "New X-ray Space Observatory to Study Black Holes and History of Galaxy Clusters"
0Fua9No.jpg
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"We see X-rays from sources throughout the universe, wherever the particles in matter reach sufficiently high energies," said Robert Petre, chief of Goddard's X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory and the U.S. project scientist for ASTRO-H. "These energies arise in a variety of settings, including stellar explosions, extreme magnetic fields, or strong gravity, and X-rays let us probe aspects of these phenomena that are inaccessible by instruments observing at other wavelengths."

ASTRO-H is capable of observing X-ray sources, like galaxy clusters and neutron stars, more than 10 times fainter than its predecessor, Suzaku, which operated from 2005 to 2015. To achieve this, ASTRO-H uses four co-aligned focusing X-ray telescopes and a suite of cutting-edge instruments that provide simultaneous coverage across the observatory's entire energy range.
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B

Bregor

Member
I hope that they re-establish contact but it doesn't look good. Another reminder how difficult space travel is. It makes me nervous about big projects like the James Webb space telescope.
 
TheMan

TheMan

Member
they named a satellite after hitomi tanaka? brilliant.

if you don't know who that is, i HIGHLY suggest you look her up. NSFW!
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
How do you lose something with two of the biggest radar domes I've ever seen.
 
R

Ragnorok64

Member
Really GAF? Japan launches a satellite with a legit name and all you guys can think about is an adult performer? There's got to be thousands of legit people with that name.









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It probably went off course because the right side was bigger than the left.
 
J

John_B

Member
Bregor said:
I hope that they re-establish contact but it doesn't look good. Another reminder how difficult space travel is. It makes me nervous about big projects like the James Webb space telescope.
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I sincerely hope that project is successful. It's way late and hugely over budget.

Are these projects insured?
 
S

subrock

Member
Damn well hopefully if it got hit it deorbits itself, or has a failsafe to do so. We don't need more space debris up there doing nothing but being a projectile
 
C

Crash55118

Member
Bregor said:
I hope that they re-establish contact but it doesn't look good. Another reminder how difficult space travel is. It makes me nervous about big projects like the James Webb space telescope.
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Really scared for this, especially since the launching of Hubble was such a disaster, and we won't really have a ship capable of servicing Webb, and won't for a decade(s).
 
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